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Ok so this is my first attempt at painting space marines (its actually a Soul Drinkers army so... renegades...chaos models?... STOP YELLING AT ME) although its not my first model ever painted... It needs ALOT of work so any tips appreciated... please dont point out the odvious... infact heres stuff that I know I need to do, so other than that, any other tips are greatly appreciated!

- Probably a second coat of Shining gold
- Clean up the sides where Shining gold went over
- Fill in the eyes
- Grey highlights on the black cable things
- Blackening in the vents that I missed


Those are the major thing Im noticing i need to fix... Also what should I do ontop of all this? Put a wash into the creveses (between purple and gold trimming rather)? Or what would make this look better? Im not the best painter in the world... especially on infantry models.... C&C Please!

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I had recently decided to use all my current chaos army towards my newly starting Soul Drinkers army and although your thinking it might not make sense since thier still just space marines, renegade space marines, I come to think that during the 2nd Chapter War that some of the marines must have actually gone Chaos... so thats what Im sticking too! Although for those who have read the books... In the first book when Abraxes comes to the Soul Drinkers, Sarpedon does say they are indeed "Chaos Space Marines" so I could always go with that too... But it saves me some money and adds a bit of variety to the army, imo...

Wash the entire model in badab black it will give it a cleaner look plus add some depth, and then highlight.

Also do something with the base it will make the model look a lot better.

Hmmm I think it may need to be a deeper purple. Looks good so far though.

Its pretty dark actually... its the cameras flash that made it bright... it was hormagaunt (or however you spell it) purple... as for the base... yeah im going to base it but not tilll after its finished being painted

If you want to do a chaos souldrinkers army then grab a bunch of scouts to go with your group, I am not sure if you read all of the books yet but you will get a good back story for a chaos splinter cell of souldrinkers.

As for painting rank and file solders have bone trim, and black gantlets. They are also described very often as being so dark that they appear black in low light.

Im still working through the books... read the first one and chapter war and almost through Bleeding Chalice... and its not going to be a full chaos army at all... only like 20 marines... the rest of the army is all normal space marines, drop pods, sm terminators, assault marines, scouts, etc... This is just the 20 marines that went chaos and came back... if that makes sense This just saves me money and makes them look a bit more renegade haha.

Yeah thats true, I never thought about them being so dark that they appear black... Im sure after the black wash it will look even darker (and the actual currently is about what it is in the first picture.. dang flash messin up mah colors!

mothman_451 wrote:Wash the entire model in badab black it will give it a cleaner look plus add some depth, and then highlight.

Also do something with the base it will make the model look a lot better.

thats really all there is left to do...you'll be amazed by how AWESOME the model looks afterwards!!post some before/after pics!

Agree, throw a wash in there. A black ink/wash would be a good start, but depending on what you're shooting for, it might be cute to cut it with a little red or purple ink too, maybe (I tend to do an awful lot of test models while trying things out. Thankfully I'm making Nurgle so it's pretty forgiving about variation).

I actually like the lavendar/gold palatte. Good blending opportunity if you make the bottom darker and lighten it up as you get higher.

Not sure what color for the eyes - a neon electric green would be fun and provide pretty good contrast.

Wash it in black, do the eyes in yellow and add more highlights. Good scheme, and you've a steady hand for detail work.

Deffinetly wash and highlight. But as far as a block color goes it looks really nice.
A little tip I learned for golds and bronzes tho. I paint the part in bolt gun or mithril silver first. Then I dry brush lightly over the metal part with the gold/bronze colors. I do it lightly a few times over until it gets to where I like it. It adds a very nice weather/used look AND it doesnt look like its glopped on ever. Give it a shot, once you get the style down, you can paint the metals on there in just a few minutes

The paint scheme reminds me of my Dawn of War online play color scheme, which I have named 'fallen kings.'

The 'Fallen Kings' theme s pale grey/lavender with bleached bone and brassy/gold highlights and the occasional liche purple shoulder-pad looks incredible in play.

Add this and some dark green or black bolters and you will have an amazing-looking army.

Alrighty... took all your suggestions and I like the results so far (still got some little things to do)... Got it compared to a marine that was exactly the same but hasnt had anything else done to it odviously, jsut so you can see the difference... The black wash made it look much better, made it fit the description of Soul Drinkers as some one said about almost looking black. Also changed the weapon after looking at the omnibus cover

Any other thoughts on what I can do to improve this before I finish it up?

Looking back at them, you can kind of see the brush strokes put on from the black wash... does anyone know how I can prevent this? It really shows on the legs I think... although its not a big deal it would still be nice to know how to apply the washes without the strokes showing up Let me know what you think though!

Better. Try using Gryphonne Sepia on the gold to make it darker and more weathered.

As for brush strokes, are you using a wash or just ink? If you're using plain ink you need to mix it with a medium. If you're using a wash and still have brush strokes, your brush is too coarse. I get a very soft brush, get the brush saturated, and the let the wash come off on to the model, gently guiding the wash on; letting it flow where I want it and dabbing or sweeping it away whenever it goes too fair. You do NOT want to force this stuff on or use it like paint.


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That said, your mini is looking better. Just a little more!

Ahhhh alright... im just using gw washes but that makes sense... I was using it kind of like paint and ill probably have to get a new brush for washes but thanks for the advice! Will help alot in the future..

I actually want to make the gold a bit cleaner, some of it got too dark from the wash (especially the shoulder pads it seems, and Id like it to be a gold look (and at the moment it looks bronze kind of or something liek that) since thats how its described in the books So I might actually go back over it with shining gold again

I personally really like how the gold came out. If you need them brighter I second the earlier suggestion of drybrushing gold over silver.

Also, I'm not familiar with the Soul Drinkers, but unless they've completely fallen to Chaos you ought to shave off the eight-pointed star.

It was a chapter that Ben Counter wrote 5 books for so far (not sure if there will be more, as Im still reading it) and Id rather not go into too much of the story so that I dont ruin it for anyone, but I did post my reason for using the Chaos models in the original post



Theres an image what Soul Drinkers look like... I changed mine a little bit as odviously the model doesnt look like the one in the picture <_< Heres a link to some other pictures of them, and what not..http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Soul_Drinkers

But they are generally Purple Armoured with a gold trim, however as stated before they appear nearly black at times... I might or might not go back and change the gold, Ive got quite a few marines to try things on before I make my decision

Ok so I went back and highlighted it... Again Im not the best painter, far from it actually. However this is the first time Ive actually highlighted Imo... The closest Ive come to highlighting was drybrushing lighter greens on my orks skins <.< or drybrushing my chaos dragons skin to highlight the black... however this was the first time Ive actually done freehanded highlights if I can put it that way... So I am actually quite pleased with the results...

What do you guys think? Do I need to highlight it more? Or did I actually do okay considering it was my first highlight :O ? And is there anything else I should do to the model besides base it? Im actually going to probably go back and make the sphere things on the backpack purple instead of gold... I dont like how the gold came out on them and it doesnt match the Soul Drinkers theme so I would find it easier and better looking anyways. Unless you guys think that it actually looks good with them gold, and that I should just make it match the rest of the gold (which I have decided to keep the way it is) C&C Please!!!!!

Summery:I talk to much... FIRST HIGHLIGHT!! WOOHOO! C&C GO GO!

Wash is still messy and I'd have highlighted it in a lighter colour.

However, your highlights are well placed and you show good control.

Found this GREAT model someone did for Sarpedon and Id like to see if anyone knows what he used for the legs... I couldnt find them on the GW site ( I assume they are tyranid lol ) and its probably something really odvious and I just fail at looking but if someone knows what they are Id love to know!

Will post updated marine pics in a bit...

Again, props to that sarpedon! Amazing model indeed